It's a jungle out there... Essex lion just one of 829 big cats on the prowl

BIG CATS are roaming the British countryside, if the soaring number of public sightings reported to the police are to be believed.

A sheep looking in direction at a big cat that appears to be roaming the British countryside []

More than 800 people have called 999 in recent years, convinced they have seen panthers, pumas, lynx or leopards in wild areas such as forests, national parks and Ministry of Defence ranges.

Commanders of military bases and Forestry Commission rangers have reported seeing “large black cats”, giving increasing credibility to fears that predators from Africa and Asia are breeding in the wild in the UK.

The issue was highlighted last weekend when Essex Police mounted a huge operation after reports that a lion was at large in St Osyth.

It sparked a two-day search involving dozens of officers and two police helicopters at a cost of £25,000. It is now believed the curious case of the Essex Lion was a hoax.

Police and big cat experts suspect pranksters took a photo of a cuddly toy they had placed in a field and put it online.

Rest assured, if any evidence comes to light that this was a prank with malicious intent

A police source

A police source said: “I believe it was a hoax, that the so-called lion in that blurred photograph was nothing but a cuddly toy.

“Rest assured, if any evidence comes to light that this was a prank with malicious intent, then we will take action against those individuals concerned.”

There have been six on MoD land, at Merryfield Airfield in Somerset, Salisbury Plain Training Area, Wiltshire, and Faslane Naval Base.

The commanding officer at Merryfield called MoD police in July and August 2005 after security guards reported seeing a 4ft-long “large black cat” in long grass near its perimeter.

The force also received reports of large black cats roaming Salisbury Plain in 2002, 2009 and August last year.In one report to the MoD police, the witness says: “I know what you are going to say, but I don’t drink.”

Devon and Cornwall Police have logged 205 sightings since 2000. The Beast of Bodmin is said to roam the Cornish moors and the Beast of Exmoor is blamed for the death of sheep in Devon. Forestry Commission rangers have reported sightings in the ­Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire.

Kent Big Cat Research was told of 189 sightings in Kent, 80 in Sussex and 30 in ­London suburbs last year. The most recent was a 5ft-long black cat on the Isle of Sheppey last December.

The wildlife conservation body Natural England says the sightings are a direct result of animals kept as pets being released into the wild.